First Words
by Charlie Waffles
Summary: When you're born, you're born with the first words you'll ever say to your soulmate written on your body. (This will feature various ficlets for various characters and pairings. Not canon compliant.)
1. Avada Kedavra

Disclaimer: I obviously own nothing. This story is fanfiction. This disclaimer applies to all chapters of this story.

 **Avada Kedavra**

When you're born, you're born with the first words you'll ever say to your soulmate written on your body. No one at the orphanage or school could ever tell Tom what the words appearing on his left forearm meant, but he assumed it was either related to doing some sort of magic trick or something spoken in some language that wasn't English. Because of this, his interests as a child were guided heavily towards becoming a magician and learning other languages. He had no luck in learning what his words meant during his first 11 years of life.

When Tom learned he was a wizard, he was so excited to have it confirmed that he was special. It also let him know that his focus on looking towards magic tricks and other languages wasn't completely off the mark. Instead of telling Professor Dumbledore about how he could control animals and hurt people with his magic, he asked about his soulmark. The professor's facial expression darkened, and he told Tom that he was too young to know about the meaning of the words. This annoyed Tom endlessly, and once he became a student at Hogwarts, he spent most of his spare time in the library.

Tom, being a presumed muggleborn and a poor one at that with his second-hand school supplies, had nothing but free time to spend in the library outside of classes and homework. He wanted to learn about the meaning behind his soulmark and why it would upset someone. He also wanted to learn about his lineage and all he could about Hogwarts and the wizarding world.

He learned about his lineage during his 4th year as well as the meaning behind his soulmark. Learning that he was the heir of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts and the particular founder of the house he was sorted into, made Tom feel very proud and at ease with himself. Learning that the first words he would ever say to his soulmate were the killing curse, heavily implying he'd kill his soulmate upon first meeting them, filled him with despair. He became determined to never utter the killing curse. It was illegal after all anyway.

Deciding to never use the killing curse didn't last long. Not too long after Tom set the basilisk upon Hogwarts during his 5th year he learned about where his father was, and he went about killing his muggle relatives during a summer between school years.

Tom was, of course, quite terrified of dying at a young age from a bomb being dropped on him, so he used Myrtle's accidental death by the basilisk to make his first horcrux and the deaths of his muggle relatives to make his second. Tom also hoped that by making himself immortal that he'd be able to ensure he met his soulmate. He didn't want to be one of those unfortunate people who never met their soulmate or only got to know them for a short while because one of them died.

After graduating from Hogwarts, Tom worked at Borgin and Burkes for a while and obtained two more vessels to make into horcruxes. He then travelled for many years, eventually finding Ravenclaw's diadem, and made more horcruxes. He learned different languages and a great deal of magic, mostly dark, and interacted with all sorts of different people and creatures.

Tom truly became Lord Voldemort in time, and concern over killing his soulmate was diminished by his creation of the horcruxes and by his increased kill count. After spending so many years of life with no luck in finding his soulmate, he began to suspect that either he killed his soulmate already or he wasn't meant to have a soulmate. Perhaps the implication of having the killing curse on his arm meant that his "soulmate" was essentially death and that he complemented death by being immortal and thus life. Perhaps the killing curse was meant to be a way for life to send gifts to death.

Lord Voldemort was more than just a little surprised when the killing curse not only failed to kill Harry Potter but also backfired. Most of the world assumed that Harry just had some sort of special magical ability that allowed him to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as an infant while Dumbledore believed it was Lily Potter's love for her son that protected Harry from Voldemort. The reality was simply that soulmates cannot kill each other. Lord Voldemort didn't know, just like how he didn't know how horcruxes would negatively affect him; he didn't do enough research on the subjects.


	2. Liar

**Liar**

Although Harry knew that the word appearing on his right cheek was the first thing he'd ever say to his soulmate and not a descriptor of himself, it didn't stop other people from thinking otherwise. Because of the rumors his relatives spread around and the prominent display of the word on his face, Harry was generally treated like a liar while growing up. This didn't change when he began attending Hogwarts either. He was regarded with suspicion, and people who might have otherwise wished to get close to him didn't.

Being called a liar so much in his short life led Harry to be a very honest person. He didn't want the accusations about him to ever become true. He also very much despised liars. It was clearly because his soulmate would lie to him upon their first encounter that he was in the predicament he was in. He always kept an eye out for words that read like lies on other people's bodies as a result.

Harry was sorted into Hufflepuff. While many people understood that the word on his face was what he would first say to his soulmate, most still subconsciously applied the label to him. Furthermore, many felt that it said something negative about Harry if his soulmate was bad enough for him to have to call them a liar before anything else.

Harry had little luck with making friends although he did manage to get along with a Gryffindor named Hermione Granger who was ostracized by her House and shunted by her soulmate and another Gryffindor named Neville Longbottom who no one wanted to work with because he was so inept with magic.

Harry didn't even think to pursue the sorcerer's stone. Instead, he was kidnapped by Professor Quirrell in the middle of the night and brought before the Mirror of Erised after the man realized he wouldn't be able to get the stone himself. It was after Lord Voldemort had been revealed and had made promises to Harry that were in no way likely to be true that Harry couldn't prevent himself from shouting "Liar!" at him.

Harry didn't even have time to register that Lord Voldemort was apparently his soulmate before he had to burn Quirrellmort, causing Professor Quirrell to disintegrate, Lord Voldemort's spirit to leave the body, and Harry to faint from the pain.


End file.
